Quoting Russian Foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian news agency, Interfax, said that the United States of America and his country, have agreed to set up a joint group, to discuss human rights related issues.
In an article published by a Russian newspaper, Mr. Lavrov said that Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin have strongly supported the initiative, when they last met in Kennebunkport, the Maine summer retreat of George Bush Senior, on 3rd July 2007.

According to Mr. Lavrov, the group is to be chaired by the Russian head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Yevgeny Primakov, and former U.S. secretary of state, Henry Kissinger.

The agreement is seen as one of the few positive results of the summit, which was held at a time of growing tensions between the two countries, because of sharp differences over Washington‘s planned missile defense shield bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.